KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Trishna Shakya, 11, looks imposing in her finery as she is carried high in the arms of a helper from the temple palace. As she rides a chariot bedecked in garlands of brilliant orange marigolds, a crowd of devotees lifts their phones to capture the moment while receiving her blessings.
Shakya has been serving as Kumari — Nepal’s living goddess — since the age of 3, living in the Kumari’s temple palace for the past eight years.
With thick vermillion paste on her forehead surrounding a golden representation of her “third eye,” Kumari was driven around the center of the capital in a wooden chariot pulled by devotees through tens of thousands gathered for the start of Nepal’s Indra Jatra festival Saturday.
The word “kumari” means virgin in the Nepali language, and its occupants are selected at a very young age, sometimes as young as 2. They spend years in the palace temple, serving in the role until just before puberty.
Kumaris rarely leave the temple palace, and when they do for festivals or rituals, their feet are never supposed to touch the outside ground. They are either carried in a palanquin or in someone’s arms.
Kumaris are chosen from Buddhist families from the Newar community, indigenous to the Kathmandu valley, and revered by both Hindus and Buddhists in the predominantly Hindu nation.
The weeklong Indra Jatra festival is the first of a series of celebrations that includes Dasain, the main festival, celebrated later this month; and Tihar or Diwali, the festival of lights, in October.
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This version corrects the age of the girl and how many years she served as the living goddess.